What is the best way to make it clear to a blind person that you are speaking to him? Eye contact is clearly not an option, touching seems intrusive and inappropriate, and phrases like, “Hey, you with the dog/glasses/cane” just seem rude. However, if you don’t somehow indicate that you’re speaking to him, how is he to realize that you’re addressing him and not someone else nearby?
Not that it’s an excuse, but confusion like this (rather than jerkishness) might be part of why some people address the blind person’s companion instead. At any rate, I’d like to know how best to address a blind person I don’t know without being discourteous or awkward…help me out! TIA
First off… Heloise : what a wonderful name for a guide dog! Heidi was the name of the best dog we had when I was a child. Give Heidi a hug and a scratch from me ne4xt time you see her!
ONWARD!:
My ex was a very sickly man. He spent a LOT of time in the hospital. I would take the dog up to see him. Being sighted myself, I technically wasn't allowed the same privileges as J. BUT we both were well known to the public transportation system so they let me get away with murder in regards to "Puppy Paws". And the hospital never complained about me bringing him in to J's room. And I would walk "Puppy Paws" whenever J was too ill to do it. I will state I never tried to pass myself off as blind or that he was my dog. And I never took him anywhere that wouldn't have let me bring him in anyway. Usually though I would take Pup out on just his leash... but like I said I have slipped him past a lot of no no situations. It helps that he was a very well loved dog in our community and on our college campus. People who saw him with me would run up " OH no! J isn't in the hospital AGAIN?!" So yeah Pup and I pretty much got away with murder...
J was very acutely aware of people around him. He often heard someone approach before that person was close enough to speak in a polite tone of voice. Stores of course messed that up. But a light touch on his arm would get his attention usually without scaring him. And piaffe NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, short of a life threatening emergency, grab a blind person and pull hem around something. Talk about the height of rudeness. Always say" excuse me sir/madam… Can I help you find something?"“Do you need assistance?” “There is ainsert item here in your path. Can I help you around it?” The blind person will answer and if they require help will take YOUR arm, you can then lead them without dragging them.
Guide dogs are amazing. I often ride the train with a blind woman and her dog. The dog (a black lab) is so cute and well behaved I am always tempted to pet and talk to him (I won’t, don’t worry).
He lays patiently between the seats (often sleeping) during the ride, but as soon as she touches him, he stands by her seat ready to work.
What really amazes me about him is the escalator. I never imagined a dog would let himself get near one of those, let alone ride it. I can imagine the gridded steps are terribly uncomfortable for his feet, but he’s a trooper. Amazing dog, and kudos to whoever trained him to navigate an escalator!
Friends of the blind, please correct me if I’m wrong. But sometimes I will gently touch a stranger on the arm or shoulder if necessary to help get their attention, in addition to “Excuse me, sir/ma’am” (for example, in a crowded place or if I am behind them). I don’t think this would be a problem for a blind person as well – except, and here’s where you can correct me, if blind people are perhaps more sensitive to unexpected touching.
I think, perhaps, if you say, “Excuse me” before you touch them, as a kind of warning, that would be less startling. Other than that, I think it might be okay.
My main working dog loves escalators. His tail wags furiously when he goes near one. He knows how to stop, wait, watch the steps and walk forward with “two paws up”. When he gets to the bottom or the top, he does a little “hop” to get off. It’s quite cute, and quite amusing.
It just takes a while to get guide/service animals to realise that the stairs move… and that they don’t have to go down/up. Other than that, they seem to find it cool and amusing rather than uncomfortable!
I’d have to agree with RickJay on this. I have a three year old and a 5 month old, and either one can get messier than a guide dog in the time it takes me to turn my head. And the five month old is teething, so she produces more drool than a basset hound. I don’t think I’d be too concerned about a guide dog in a restaurant. Although, to be fair, my three year old has stopped drinking out of the toilet
Warning-extremely sad but true story to follow:
I had a really lovely sales rep for an Austin radio station that had a service dog.
She was in a wheelchair and the dog was a huge help to her.
She drove a van that had been outfitted to suit her needs.
Regretfully, she pulled into her garage one fine evening, and fell out of her car seat while trying to maneuver into her wheelchair.
The van was running and both she and the dog died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Apparently she couldn’t get to the garage opener.
They found the dog next to her; he’d been trying to drag her to the door.
In the mall that used to be the Ford assembly plant in the San Jose/Oakland area (can’t remember the name of the particular burg where the mall is located), I saw a blind lady with a guide dog.
The were walking away from the food court, apparently heading off to do some more shopping, but the dog kept pausing. The lady would tap around with her stick, then tug on the dog to get it to move. The dog looked pretty uncomfortable, and clearly was in distress – but I couldn’t see why.
Just then, the dog squatted and dropped a huge, steaming pile of turds on the floor. Then the dog and blind lady just walked off.
The dog was a german shepard, but it left enough crap for a horse. Stank to high heaven, too. Some poor guy from the closest booth (Orange Julius, with the weird, multi-color hat?) came over to clean it up with one of those dustpans-on-a-stick and a little broom. Needless to say, he just managed to spread it around some, and ruin his tools.
I headed off, I couldn’t stand it any more. When I passed by later, it was all cleaned up, but the smell still lingered. I think a childs drool, or even vomit, would have been preferable for all involved.
I had another blind friend who uses a cane and is extremely independent. One day a woman came up and INSISTED he needed her “help” to go down a flight of stairs. He kept assuring her that he was fine and could manage without her assistance, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer – eventually she wrapped her arms around him and threw him down the stairs! He ended up with a broken wrist for her “assistance.” (If I’d been him, she would have ended up with an assault charge, too!)
Not the dog’s fault. Clearly the owner was more interested in her shopping than in taking care of her dog’s needs. Either that or the dog was ill, which can happen to people as well. My grandmother once shit her pants while visiting me, and made quite a mess in my bathroom. She was terribly embarrassed. Doesn’t mean I stopped inviting her to come and see me.
Please don’t use this incident as a reason to disparage guide dogs’ access to public places. It was an isolated incident and definitely not typical.
No disparagement intended. I fully support the use of guide dogs, and realize that life is not always pretty. It was a bad situation all around, and I certainly didn’t think I was assigning any blame to anyone. I only brought it up because several people had asked if it ever happened, and other people seemed so assured that it would be no big deal.
It happens, and it is a big deal, at least for a little while, for a small area (like the food court). I’m not sure the blind lady noticed – she was having difficulty with her dog, then the difficulty stopped. The smell wasn’t instantly overpowering, she may have moved out of range quickly enough to miss it entirely. It only reached WMD status after the guy smeared it around with the broom and dustpan.
I don’t know what she could have done – I’m pretty sure she didn’t have a mop, bucket, and industrial disinfectant with her. It might have been better if she stopped and tried to notify the mall cleaning staff, or at least warned people not to step in it (no-one did, AFAIK). But, she may have been embarrased, or even unaware of the problem.
MamaTiger it happens…some people think that just because you are blind, you must be helped, even if you say that you are capable. She could have at least walked beside him, if she insisted so much, and hold out her hands in case something happens.
I felt a pang of anger there for your friend. He must have tried to handle that very well…i would have snapped at the lady as she put her arms around me…
She’s lucky that wasn’t my sister. She would have screamed her lungs out that she was being attacked, then hit the woman either with her cane or with her fist.
Dumb question I’ve wondered about-- if I run into a person with their working dog, what should my interaction with the doggie be? Can I ask whether I can pet the doggie (my first desire-- nice doggie! good doggie!) or should interaction with the doggie remain purely professional when they are at work? What about dogs-in-training?
Gentle reminder here that not all service animals are indeed meant for visually impaired people. In fact, there are many service dogs who assist people that have seizures…who in essence, alert their person to a pending attack and have saved peoples lives while offering them the freedom to move around.
Your best bet is to notice special vests on the service animal. Many of them are in training, remember…WITH sighted people.
Maybe it’s just because I’m silly that way.